I Skype with my son and daughter in Tokyo every day. A better video camera would be nice my HP Laptop and every USB webcam I have is better quality than iPad 2 one, but I like the iPad 2 form factor better than laptops. I love the iTouch/iPad cameras as better than nothing but they need improvement of course.
They may be at PC or their iTouch when we video chat. I take my photos on an Android Sensation which is excellent and am about to get an iPhone 4s as an additional phone/camera for many reasons - learning and practical.
When my kids visit from Tokyo they love using my laptop or iPad the iPad moreso. They can use the iPad 2 in car and iTouches to do YouTube and games (they do YouTube in Japanese).
My kids skype with their Mom when they are about to go to bed in Tokyo and she is riding home on Subway or at office working late (she has iPhone they are usually on PC doing 'Learn English Games' or 'Plants and Zombies' or watching YouTube). They also may use their iTouches in the car or iPad to Skype their Mom or Grandparents in Tokyo when visiting me in US and riding car for 5-10 hour rides. I use my Android Sensation 4g as a hotspot for the 4 kids in cars with iTouches, iPad, DS etc. who want to surf web, skype Tokyo, etc.
They make videos and pictures with their iTouches see http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150113950456808.320753.502541807&type=3 although they have a ton of videos (My daughter made video of everyone opening Christmas presents and having animated conversations about life, etc.) they make for relative and to show their friends sessions of games they play on the DS, etc.
BTW Android tablets are no good for my kids yet. They are fully bilingual and tend to be browsing Youtube videos or searching Google in Kanji i.e. イナズマイレブン and iOS has excellent Japanese support, Android does not support Asian languages yet.
My kids and I use our cameras. I may be using my iPad 2 at chair and cats do something cute and phone is across room charging so I take video or Pic and if I get up to grab phone the carts may quit playing and doing the cute thing they do when my walking across room distracts them. Plenty of great uses for cameras.
Don't even get me started on how nice seeing someone without their shirt on in Skype is and why video cameras matter on tablets. That talk is TMI for this group.
On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 7:48 PM, Jim Saklad <jimdoc@me.com> wrote:
> Me I would not buy an iPad 1 because no camera. if a $200 iTouch has a camera a $500+ device should.From where I sit, a camera in an iPad is relevant only for facetime.
An iPad is an awkward device for augmented reality, and even more so for any kind of routine photography.
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